City Of Umhlathuze Mayor Tackles Esikhaleni Power Woes

Rural eSikhaleni community members who continue to suffer power outages will have to endure the situation a little longer while Eskom attends to the problem.

This was revealed last week when City of uMhlathuze mayor, Cllr Xolani Ngwezi held a meeting with Eskom officials and councillors from the affected wards.

Affected communities include KwaNdaye, Isikhalasenkosi, Mzingwenya, Mabuyeni, Mpembeni, Mkhobose, Ndindima and Madaka.

During the meeting, it was revealed that regular outages were caused by broken substations which supply the areas in question.

With only one substation operational, more outages will be scheduled for affected communities until the issue is resolved.

According to a statement issued by the city last week, the situation will likely be resolved within 14 days.

‘We want to assure affected communities that we are following this matter very closely and monitoring its progress.

‘We understand affected areas are directly supplied by Eskom, but we share power stations hence we are working closely with the utility,’ said Mayor Ngwezi.

Eskom on Wednesday said it is committed to a working partnership with the City of uMhlathuze to speedily restore supply to affected customers.

‘On 26 December, a 132/11kV transformer belonging to the uMhlathuze Municipality failed. The municipality approached Eskom for assistance in fast-tracking the repairs.

‘The Eskom team immediately went out to assess the damage.

‘Although the inclement weather made working conditions unfavourable, Eskom continued with the repairs to date,’ said the power utility in a statement.

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